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Secularist Attacks on the Catholic Church in Britain By John Loughlin Friday, July 20, 2007, 8:51 AM One might have expected the Catholic Church in Great Britain to enter a cosy relationship with the new Labour Government of Tony Blair elected in 1997. During that year’s general election, the bishops of England and Wales had issued a document entitled The Common Good, which sought to apply the principles of Catholic social teaching to the issues of the day. Although the document did not advise voters for which party they should vote, it was clear that the sympathies of the bishops...

Homosexual Man Wins "Landmark" "Discrimination" Case Against Church of England By Hilary White CARDIFF, Wales, July 18, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Homosexual activist groups are hailing as a "landmark" the decision against the Church of England by a Welsh employment tribunal in favour of a homosexual man claiming discrimination based on his sexual orientation. The gay lobby group Stonewall gave financial and legal backing to a complaint by 42 year-old John Reaney, an active homosexual who had applied for the position of youth director for the diocese of Hereford.Despite the fact that the Sexual Orientation Regulations contain an "exemption" for religious...

Bishop loses gay employment case http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/6904057.stm Wednesday, 18 July 2007, 09:37 GMT 10:37 UK A gay man has won his case for unlawful discrimination after he was refused a youth official's job by a Church of England bishop. The employment tribunal said John Reaney, 42, was discriminated against "on grounds of sexual orientation" by the Hereford diocesan board of finance. Mr Reaney, from Colwyn Bay, Conwy, said he was "delighted" at the decision. The Bishop of Hereford, the Rt Rev Anthony Priddis, said he was "naturally disappointed" and may appeal. During the tribunal in Cardiff in April, Mr Reaney said...

The floods that have devastated swathes of the country are God's judgment on the immorality and greed of modern society, according to senior Church of England bishops.   The Bishop said pro-gay laws were to blame for the floods One diocesan bishop has even claimed that laws that have undermined marriage, including the introduction of pro-gay legislation, have provoked God to act by sending the storms that have left thousands of people homeless. While those who have been affected by the storms are innocent victims, the bishops argue controversially that the flooding is a result of Western civilisation's decision to...

One of the Church of England's most senior women clerics has quit her job after becoming pregnant while unmarried. The Rev Dr Emma Loveridge stepped down as principal adviser to the Archbishop of York after only 13 months in the post. The 42-year-old cited "personal and family reasons" for leaving the staff of Dr John Sentamu, who ranks second in the Church's hierarchy. He is regarded as conservative in matters of sexual morality She is also understood to have resigned her licence to practise as a priest and to have effectively stepped down from the clergy. The baby is believed...

In my days of captivity, it sustained me. Now, I fear the Church of England that shaped me has gone for ever ... The church of my childhood was hardly a pretentious building. Locally it was known as the 'Tin Tabernacle', as it was largely constructed from corrugated iron sheets and no more than 50 years old. It was the daughter church of the ancient Cheshire parish church several miles away. During heavy rainstorms, the service had to be suspended, as the noise of rain falling on the iron roof blotted out all other sound. This unpretentious building boasted a...

There are few orthodoxies as stern and inflexible as current unorthodoxies. And despite the loud pity-and-justice politics, it is those modern progressive undoxies which– given free rein– are the most intolerant, illiberal, and inhuman. Indeed, there’s no more zealous a ‘heretic’ hunter these days than a hard-core ‘heretic’. Blaming Nigeria So when we read the current dog-pile on Nigerian Peter Akinola, we’d agree that in seeking new Church-structures and such does not (1) mean blinders about the problems of the church in other places, or (2) denying basic human rights, or exploiting people in that position. (3) That would include...

This afternoon Synod moved onto a debate about Civil Partnerships and passed this motion. That this Synod (a) acknowledge the diversity of views within the Church of England on whether Parliament might better have addressed the injustices affecting persons of the same sex wishing to share a common life had it done so in a way that avoided creating a legal framework with many similarities to marriage; and (b) note the intention of the House to keep their Pastoral Statement under review. The final motion was very different from the original below proposed by the Revd Paul Perkin. That this...

Catholics in England outnumber Anglicans 16.02.2007 Poles in the UK are swelling the congregations and changing the face of British Christianity. Amy Drozdowska reports In the wake of England's biggest wave of immigration in three centuries, a new report finds that the face of Christianity in England is increasingly international. Polish migrant workers in particular are contributing to a huge growth in London's Catholic community - one that's set to overshadow England's own church. Thanks in large part to the huge influx of Polish migrant workers to the United Kingdom since Poland's entry into the European Union, Catholicism is set...

LONDON (Reuters) - Offering a telling twist in Britain's highly charged debate about religion and integration, the two Anglican leaders most vociferously defending British traditions are originally from Pakistan and Uganda. Many Church of England clerics tread warily through a political minefield as the country reflects on the value of multiculturalism, especially after last year's London suicide bombings by British Islamist extremists. But Archbishop of York John Sentamu and Bishop of Rochester Michael Nazir-Ali seem less inhibited than most. Robust spokesmen for their Christian faith, the two have both taken very public stands on issues ranging from Muslim veils to...

Some sick babies must be allowed to die, says Church ? Bishop admits right to life for newborns is not absolute ? Nuffield inquiry to publish guidelines on premature births Amelia Hill and Jo Revill Sunday November 12, 2006 Observer Church of England leaders want doctors to be given the right to withhold treatment from seriously disabled newborn babies in exceptional circumstances. The move is expected to spark massive controversy. The church leaders' call for some children to be allowed to die - overriding the presumption that life should be preserved at any cost - comes in response to an...

Church Supports Baby Euthanasia THE Church of England has joined one of Britain?s royal medical colleges in calling for legal euthanasia of seriously disabled newborn babies. Church leaders want doctors to be given the right to withhold treatment from seriously disabled newborn babies in exceptional circumstances. Their call, overriding the presumption that life should be preserved at any cost, follows that of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecology, revealed in The Sunday Times last week. The church?s position was laid out in a submission to an independent inquiry, due to publish its report this week, into the ethical concerns...

The Archbishop of Canterbury has said that promoting a society where no religious symbols are visible in public is "politically dangerous" and warned against a march towards secularism in Britain. Rowan Williams said he was making his views known in an effort to bring perspective to the ongoing debate on the wearing of Islamic veils, Christian crosses and other visible expressions of religious belief. "The ideal of a society where no visible public signs of religion would be seen - no crosses around necks, no sidelocks, turbans or veils - is a politically dangerous one. "It assumes that what comes...

LONDON, October 4, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) – In a new twist on an old feminist cliché, leaders in the Church of England have told their parishioners not to use the male pronoun for God because doing so encourages wife-beating. The Daily Mail reported Monday that a report and guidelines issued by the Church of England says that conceiving of God as masculine tends to “reinforce abuse” of women by their husbands. The Christian understanding of God as Father and Lord, held by all Christians until the beginning of the incursions of feminist thought, the report called “misguided" and said it is...

Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams is backing a Church of England report that claims viewing God in masculine terms can validate "overbearing and ultimately violent patterns of behavior" in intimate relationships and "contributes to domestic abuse," the London Daily Mail reports. Archbishop Rowan Williams The document, entitled "Responding to Domestic Abuse, Guidelines for Pastoral Responsibility," is a response to a motion passed by the church's General Synod in July 2004 for guidelines to assist dioceses in working with other agencies and "speak[ing] out against the evil of domestic violence." The report encourages churches to provide pastoral counsel to victims of...

Church of England leaders warned yesterday that calling God 'He' encourages men to beat their wives. They told churchgoers they must think twice before they refer to God as 'He' or 'Lord' because of the dangers that it will lead to domestic abuse. In new guidelines for bishops and priests on such abuse, they blamed "uncritical use of masculine imagery" for encouraging men to behave violently towards women. They also warned that clergy must reconsider the language they use in sermons and check the hymns they sing to remove signs of male oppression. The recommendation - fully endorsed by Archbishop...

THE BRITISH media needs to be more balanced in its coverage of Islam, according to members of Christian-Muslim dialogue groups. On the fifth anniversary of the atrocities of 9/11 in New York, suspicion of Islam in the UK is higher than ever, as shown in a recent YouGov poll in which 53 per cent of respondents felt they thought Islam was a threat to Western liberal democracy. Meanwhile 65 per cent of those surveyed said security services should focus anti-terrorism intelligence on Muslims. Ibrahim Mogra, chair of the interfaith relations committee of the Muslim Council of Britain, said the media...

Division looms for Episcopal Churchhttp://www.christiancentury.org/article.lasso?id=2216 http://tinyurl.com/kr9gt July 25, 2006 Signs of a full-blown split between the Episcopal Church and most of the worldwide Anglican Communion appeared only days after the U.S. church's General Convention refused to renounce the election of gay bishops. The 2.2-million-member Episcopal Church would be reduced to nonvoting "associate" status in a proposed two-tiered membership policy for the 77-million-member communion that was announced June 27 in London. Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams said those national churches that sign a covenant affirming Anglicanism's traditional stance on homosexuality could be full members of the communion, while other churches would...

A Schismatic Canterbury Talehttp://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/07/14/opinion/main1805855.shtml http://tinyurl.com/r9z5a (The American Prospect) This column was written by Adele M. Stan July 16, 2006 It was with great joy that religious members of the progressive movement received, late last month, news of the election of Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori to the top leadership position in the U.S. Episcopal Church. For one, the fact of the bishop’s gender heralded an important first for Episcopalians, whose rites and rituals cling closely to those of the Roman Catholic Church. Furthermore, the inclusive position taken by Jefferts Schori with regard to the full participation of gays and lesbians in...

Anglicans should welcome a schismhttp://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=/opinion/2006/06/20/do2002.xml http://tinyurl.com/gfwwa By Damian Thompson (Filed: 19/06/2006) After a wretched couple of decades for the Church of England - catfights over the ordination of women and homosexuals, the tumbling of weekly church attendance to below a million - there is finally a glimmer of hope in the headlines. The Anglican Communion seems to be falling apart. As The Daily Telegraph's religion correspondent, Jonathan Petre, reported yesterday, the election of a woman bishop as leader of the American Anglican Church "could hasten the break-up" of the worldwide body. For this relief much thanks, to quote the sentry...